Neighboring and Justice

Reservoir in the City

Action at Reservoir

One of Reservoir’s core values is action. Our love for Jesus compels us to seek justice, show compassion, work for reconciliation, and hope for transformation in joyful engagement with the world. At Reservoir, our arm for acting out neighboring and justice in our region is called Reservoir in the City. We think you’ll find big and small examples of this action all around our community, and we invite you to join in the engagement. At Reservoir, we choose to engage in the world mainly in two ways: by being a good neighbor—building relationships with our neighbors without agenda, and by working for justice—engaging on behalf of human dignity the way we think Jesus would.

Neighboring

Our church has a long legacy of building relationships with the people who live and work in our neighborhood, and we continue to build sustainable and mutually-edifying partnerships with individuals and organizations throughout the City of Cambridge. We are widely recognized as a church that loves our neighbors, and we partner with the public schools, the police, and our neighbors to sponsor events and meet needs in North Cambridge.

Here is the shape some of that neighboring has taken:

Soccer Nights: In the United States, soccer has a diversity problem. For a lot of folks, equipment and membership in soccer clubs is cost prohibitive. All around the country, lower income students and students of color get pushed out of sports, including soccer. In general, enrichment opportunities are limited to privileged kids, while lower income kids miss out.For around 10 years, we’ve run a free, week long evening soccer camp that promotes athletic skill, leadership development, and citywide unity. Each summer for one week, around 250 kids, their families, and 70-100 volunteers gather for a neighborhood party where dozens of languages and nations of origin are represented. Our camp has been replicated in 10-15 other communities in Greater Boston and beyond. We need volunteer help to make it happen. If you’d like to help in the areas of coaching, registration, logistics, hospitality, care of 3-5 year olds, or photography, let us know!

Christian/Muslim Interfaith neighboring: In a world where Christians and Muslims often misunderstand and fear one another, we’re dedicated to bridge building and mutual love and understanding. Together with Muslim community members, Reservoir has helped host women’s teas and an annual interfaith Iftar dinner, and organized refugee support. Reservoir also regularly invites Muslim community leader to speak at Reservoir. Contact us with questions about this neighboring.

We’d love for you to help us neighbor. Keep an eye on our events calendar for opportunities to neighbor with us.

Justice Work

Fair Trade: We support fair trade, and love providing free fair trade coffee and tea to all our guests at Sunday services. We also serve granola made by refugees in Providence. Right now, we’re in the process of becoming a Fair Trade Congregation through Fair Trade Campaigns. You can contact Lydia Shiu if you’re interested in supporting that by joining a Sunday Welcome Team.

Greater Boston Interfaith Organization: GBIO works to organize Boston-area communities to fight for social justice while transcending religion, race, class, and other divisions. GBIO is one of our closest partners, and we give to GBIO at our highest level.

Through partnership with GBIO, we’ve facilitated opportunities for Reservoir community members to get involved in citywide action, helped lobby for criminal justice reform, and provided opportunities for training in organizing, story-telling, and relational meetings.

In Spring and Summer 2018, Reservoir is participating in GBIO’s House Campaign, with our own “Listening Campaign“. Our community will host house meetings where folks will have the chance to share personal stories of why we’re troubled by public issues of justice. This is an opportunity for our congregation to discover the stories we most want to tell people in power.

Asha: Asha is an NGO that is transforming lives of the residents of Delhi’s slups. Asha is also one of our closest and favorite partners. Reservoir is the home for U.S. Friends of Asha who are supporting and advocating for Asha’s work. Reservoir gives to Asha at our highest level. Teams of Reservoir members make annual visits to Delhi to learn about and encourage Asha’s work there.

We regularly host and send volunteers to service opportunities in our city: from distributing Christmas presents to lonely elders in Cambridge, to co-sponsoring gun buyback programs, to supporting the work of our local schools and more. Let us know if you’d like to help.

Our Partners

Our Partners

Reservoir Church is connected to a network of partners and friends who also care about the love of Jesus, the joy of living, and the gift of community. Come meet some of our friends...